Hepatic fibrosis is regarded to be an inevitable stage in liver cirrhosis and therefore anti hepatic fibrosis becomes a very important treating method. Now, the effective anti-hepatic fibrosis medicine is still deficient in clinic. Although several drugs including the cytokines and antioxidant had been studied under clinical research, their clinical efficacy was unsatisfactory. Recently, the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has increasingly gained prominence in anti-hepatic fibrosis, showing a promising application prospect.
Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae (Danshen), bitter in flavor, slightly cold in property, has the therapeutic effectiveness of activating blood by resolving stasis, nourishing blood by tranquilizing mind, cooling blood by removing carbuncle and purging toxin by promoting granulation. It has been regarded as a frequently-used blood-activating and stasis-dissolving medicine. Not only does Danshen contain fat-soluble diterpenoids and water-soluble phenolic acids, but other components, e.g. flavonoids, triterpenes and sterols. Wherein, the diterpenoids with the structure of quinone and ketone include tanshinone I, tanshinone IIA, tanshinone IIR, tanshinone V, tanshinone VI, cryptotanshinone, isotanshinone I, isotanshinone II, isotanshinone IIB and dihydrotanshinone I etc. The water-soluble phenolic acids include Danshensu, protocatechuic aldehyde, protocatechuic acid, caffeic acid and derivatives or depsides condensed with Danshensu and caffeic acid (e.g., salvianolic acid A, salvianolic acid B, salvianolic acid C, salvianolic acid D, salvianolic acid E, salvianolic acid G, Lithospermic acid B, rosmarinic acid and methyl rosmarinate etc.). Aforesaid tanshinone IIA is one of the typical components in the blood-activating and stasis-dissolving diterpenoids. As confirmed by modern pharmacological studies, Danshen has the functions of dilating coronary artery, anti-myocardial ischemia, anticoagulation, anti-formulation of thrombus, sedation, relieving pain, lowering blood lipid and anti-atherosclerosis as well.
In the present invention, hepatic fibrosis model induced with compound factor by CCl4 was established and administrated by i.g. with high, medium and low dosage of the tested drugs of Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae (RSM) preparations for 7 weeks. Bioactivities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), N-acetyl-β D-glucosaminidase (NAG) and content of total protein (TP), albumin (ALB) and type IV collagen were measured in serum. Bioactivities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA), Hyp were measured in liver. Pathomorphological change in liver was observed by HE and Masson staining Expression of α-SMA was measured by immunohistochemistry. As shown in the result, RSM preparations do have the effects of inhibiting the bioactivities of ALT, AST and NGA, lowering the content of type IV collagen in serum, increasing the content of TP and ALB in serum; decreasing the level of Hyp and MDA in liver tissue, increasing the bioactivity of SOD in liver tissue, restricting the growth of collagen fiber in liver tissue as well as reducing expression of α-SMA in liver tissue.